after playing at adams music in belgium in march, last friday at musik-klier in nuernberg has been thomas' second clinic this year. he has been busy touring and recording with italian singer gianna nannini and kind of disappeared from the clinic scene this year a little bit. sometimes it is good to make yourself a little bit rare, because once you are back, there is more excitement about you. consequently, more than 400 people showed up at the clinic making it the best attended musik-klier has ever had (one guy even drove 4 1/2 hrs one way to see thomas). on behalf of thomas and meinl, thanks again to all who came to the clinic, and to andreas klier and peter heerdegen with his team for the great evening.

a couple of days ago i returned from the modern drummer festival in new york. it was held at a very lovely new venue called "the performing arts center". this festival is said to be the most prestigous drum event worldwide. so far this has been the fifth (i think) modern drummer festival i attended. the vibe was very relaxed and the production ran smoothly. all industry veterans hung out at the festival too. a lot of inspirational discussions happen there during the festival and afterwards at the hotel bar. big business!

for any drummer it probably is the biggest honour to be invited to play this festival. it is like being accoladed. derek roddy played there for us this year. with that in mind, they try to give their absolutely very best which for the audience means they get to see the world's best drummers playing at their absolute peak. it's amazing and yes, it is the most prestigious and probably the best drum festival in the whole world.

check out some of the pictures i took.

thomas lang has been here at our office since last tuesday. it's always good having him around. tonight at 8pm he is going to be playing a clinic at musik-klier in nurenberg. so if you are around, make sure to stop by.

Howdy,

It's been a while since I've taken the time to sit down and fill you all in. Well what better time than 6:40 in the morning my time (7:40 in the morning eastern US time - this is where I am right now)?!?!

The fact is, I am up and can't get back to sleep. Just knowing that all of my devoted readers out there aren't sleeping either because they are waiting with baited breath to hear more of my words and thoughts makes me want to relieve them of their burden, so that they too can get some rest... :-)

So here I am in Rye Brook, NY at the hotel on the first day of the Modern Drummer Festival. My colleague Norbert Saemann is here with me, and it's always good when he and I can spend some time hanging and working together. We always tend to get a lot done when we're in the same vicinity. Meinl Cymbal artist Derek Roddy is here to perform this weekend and Meinl Cymbal artist Jason Bittner is here for the weekend to soak up the vibe, so I'm thinking that the forecast calls for blue skies and a very good time.

So much has been happening in the month of September...on the 3rd I flew to Germany for the Meinl Drum Festival. You've already spent a lot of time reading Norbert's blogs on that and watching videos online, so I won't be redundant by giving you a full report, but I have to say that it was really a great event...and that's not me being a "company guy" either. I really had a good time. Saw some old friends (alter kumpels) and made some new friends too. Meeting Jost Nickel and Jaska Raatikainen was a pleasure. As soon as I met Jost, I immediately liked him, as I think we share the same sense of humor. Jaska, with his reserved Finnish demeanor is very funny (as in "funny ha-ha," not "funny-weird"), maybe without even knowing it. A very nice guy who was a lot of fun to hang with. Everyone else I already knew, and as I mentioned it was a pleasure to see them all again.

So after the festival I flew home for a day of rest, then a day at Meinl USA to frantically catch up on some things, then a weekend with my wife and daughter, which was shared with Barry Kerch of Shinedown, as I went down to the riverfront in Nashville to catch Shinedown live and hang with my good friends Barry and his tech Panda. Barry and Panda have to be two of the nicest people that have ever roamed the planet. Really, these guys would give you the shirts off their backs without complaint. Seeing Shinedown with their new lineup was great. I really think these guys are firing on all cylinders now and it certainly shows live. While hanging with Barry I ran into a friend of mine, Mike Farriss, AR manager from Pearl Drums (US division is in Nashville). So after a nice Sunday at home, then a Monday at Meinl USA to frantically catch up on some more things, I left on Tuesday of last week to fly to Detroit, MI to hang with the always stupendous and never disappointing Rodney Holmes. Rodney held a clinic at the excellent store, Huber and Breese Music.

Terry Breese and his staff (Chris, Randy, Cameron, etc.) are all great people and went out of their way to make sure that Rodney was as comfortable as could be. Rodney gave a smokin' performance. He must be an alien, he is just that good. The crowd wasn't just applauding, they were cheering and yelling with amazement and joy. It was really cool to see. The next day I hung out with the store guys a little bit more and then made my way back to Nashvegas.

Thursday was a little more time with my wife and daughter, then yesterday I flew to Newark, NJ to meet up with Norbert and Heinz from the German magazine "Drums and Percussion" and make our way through rotten NYC traffic to Rye Brook, NY for the festival.

So here I am and I am stoked to see some great drumming today and tomorrow and to hang with friends in the industry who I get to see only every so often.

I am sure Norbert will chime in and give you a blogging report on everything that is going on (he loves to blog), and so will I. Other than that, I want to share some pictures with you from my last few weeks. However, I must make a disclaimer...

When I was at the Shinedown show, I had a plastic cup with a beverage in it in my left hand and my own personal digital camera in my right hand. Well, the camera slipped and fell into the drink taking a complete bath, which effectively ruined the camera. So when I went to the Rodney clinic a few days later, I had no camera, since the one I usually use with Meinl is out on the road with some other staff guys who need it at the moment. So I went and bought one of those Kodak "digital" cameras. Mistake....took terrible pics. So unfortunately I have no pics from the clinic. However I did get some great video footage of Rodney which I will have posted soon. Sorry for the long and boring story of my lack of motor skills and their tendency to give my electronics an unplanned soaking, but I felt it was best to give you full disclosure so that you didn't think I was shining Rodney by not giving him any picture time.

That's all. Signing off. Take care.

- Chris

here i am sitting at my desk wondering how fast the last few days have passed by? i remember that last saturday i drove 500km to holland and delivered the instruments for our booth at the adams drumfest. as soon as i unloaded the gear, i drove another 100km to duesseldorf airport where i stayed overnight. luckily the hotel had a gym so i was able to work out a bit after that long ride. my back needed it. next morning, i picked up nick d'virgilio and my colleague bernie from the airport. they have arrived from the salon de musique in paris. we drove to the adams festival, nick played a 60 minute set and we hung out quite a bit and had a good time. the next day, i dropped the guys off at the airport in duesseldorf again followed by another 500km ride back home.

tomorrow i will fly to newark for the weekend to attend the highly anticipated modern drummer festival. derek roddy is our man there performing this year for us. i am excited to go for another md festival. it's always a very special thing and one of the highlights of the international drumming community.

last but not least, the first three videos from the drum festival are online now. check them out here, or on meinldrumfestival.com. the videos are thomas duerrfeld (juggling and drums), jaska raatikainen (children of bodom), and felix pollard (lionel richie). more videos to come soon.

i will try to blog from the festival. so stay tuned for more.

it's been a week now since our 4th drum festival has happened. i'm still blown away from all the impressions and experiences. of all the festivals i have organised so far, this one has been the most fun. all the hard work and preparations are forgotten when i see our artists play their a** off on stage and when i see that the audience has the time of their life. once again, thanks to our artists for their great performances, but moreover, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to come and attend the festival. benny greb always says that the most precious thing one can give is his or her time and attention. both has been given by everyone who was here. we are very grateful for that.

pictures say more than a thousand words. you can see some here, and more on www.meinldrumfestival.com. check'em out. additionally we have had a stage-webcam which shot a picture every minute for four days. we made a fast motion video from all those images, also to be seen on www.meinldrumfestival.com

now i am off to holland to attend the adams drumworld festival this weekend.

for those who haven't heard the news yet: tokio hotel with drummer and meinl artist gustav schäfer have won an MTV music award for "best new artist". this is a sensational step in the band's career and we are proud having gustav in our family.

on behalf of the entire meinl team, congratulations guys - you deserve it !

- norbert

it's getting a little bit hectic now i have to admit with all the final preparations for our drum fest this coming weekend. anyways - i just wanted to let you all know that as of now we have four live webcams online on meinldrumfestival.com.

cams from left to right: area of the percussion exhibition, foreway of the main-stage tent, stage, and backstage area.

every minute a new live-picture is being uploaded automatically. right now there is still not much to see, but starting tomorrow morning the stage and PA will be built and set up followed by the soundchecks on friday andthe two festival days, saturday and sunday. the cams will go offline next monday.

maybe you will spot me every once in a while :-)